After what seems like an interminable leadership race, Dippers are on the verge of selecting the next leader of the Official Opposition and… possible future Prime Minister of Canada (at least in their dreams!). Can’t you just sense the excitement in the air as people all across the country wait with baited breath to see the thrilling outcome tomorrow?

To be honest, like 99% of Canadians, I haven’t been avidly following the NDP race to replace the late Jack Layton. From what I can gather, the Dippers’ leadership contest has been noteworthy only for not being noteworthy. Can anyone other than the 50,000 or so people voting actually name more than two or possibly three of the people running?

In any event, the televised coverage of convention itself should be interesting. These events usually are, no matter which party is involved or who the field of mostly unknown hopefuls may be; at least, that is if there isn’t an outright winner on the first ballot.

Smart money seems to be on Thomas Mulcair to emerge victorious which would present a somewhat curious scenario given the past reversal of party affiliations of both the NDP and Liberal leaders.

4 responses to “Can’t You Just Sense the Excitement?”

I am enjoying the spectacle of NDP supporters descending into the sort of spittle flecking rage that characterises CPC partisans. They’re all quite upset at all the snark aimed at their get together, because, you know, CPC and Liberal conventions are never the subject of jokes from pundits.

Well, Shiner, we can finally lay to rest the shibboleth that the CBC is somehow extremely left bias. Almost every government sought to antagonize the CBC. Heck, the Neoconservative partisans’ favourite bete noire , Terri Milewski was suspended by the Chretien Liberals for being too much of a bother. I don’t find this particularly surprising. One of the commonalities between the pearl clutching Libertarians and the die hard Progressives is to transmute countervailing evidence to their ethos as a greater manifestation of either institutional or large scale forces that seek to marginalize their voice be it public, private, or otherwise. So while the Peters of the world play armchair psychology when trolling the Progressives, there is a hunt for Liberal Nazis while feigning principled outrage when Harper’s Ministry ends up trying to implement “fascistic” legislation that has been tabled ever since they were a minority government.

The luxury of these two constituencies was that they could appeal to lofty ideals without ever having to put them to federal governance much less through the political machinations and dynamics The NDP’s provincial iterations have always been a matter of shifting to the center, but the federal NDP comfortably could play the “conscious party.” The NDP’s lack of integrated and institutional frameworks that could remotely challenge those erected by the Neoconservatives mean that they will be face with even greater pressure, but when that falls short, it will be fault of the corporate media much in the same way partisans within the Progressive Conservatives of Ontario blame the media, unions, and “stupid voters for not waking up” for the reason why McGuinty (along with “Not Sure”) can still outpoll Hudak.

Well the hardcores in the NDP ranks should be worried. After listening to Mulcair with Mansbridge, this guy knows what he’s about and he’ll drive this party where he wants it. I’m looking forward to seeing the NDP take on the Cons with Mulcair at the helm, he knows what he’s doing. Liberals better figure out fast that they need to radicalise pronto, because the days of NDP as conscience of the House are done with, the Mulcair Party is in it to win it.